By far, the rainiest 'rainy-season' I have experienced in Korea yet. I think even native Koreans would agree with me. This sort of weather makes me want to stay at home, read a book and nibble on whatever might be in the kitchen cupboards. But after receiving a promising email from a possible job offer in the states, my boyfriend encouraged us to brave the weather and indulge in some Korean cuisine. We headed to Myeong Dong in search of Andong Jjim-dalk (안동찜닭). I first tried this dish based on my ex-roommate's recommendation almost 2-years ago-thanks for the addiction, MeeJung!
Fortunately Myeong Dong boasts more Jjim-dalk restaurants than Cheongdam doles out double-eyelid surgeries. Once inside the usual restaurant, we ordered the jjimdalk that comes with 1/2 of a chicken. This easily fed 2-people. We had to order one bowl of rice, we are, after all, Korean.
It's a beautiful soupy-casserole of steamed, cut-up chicken (skin-on & bone-in), red peppers, garlic, softly stewed onions, potatoes and carrots. Other veggies can include mushrooms and spinach-but not too much, the main idea of this dish is the chicken and starchy-glass noddles, which are definitely chewy and definitely drenched in a sweet, spicy soy sauce. You can enjoy the extra sauce with ordered rice. The dish will be brought out on a huge white platter, steamy and inviting-served family style. It is usually made quite spicy, so if you're not a fan of drinking your daily allotment of water in one meal to cool the burn, I'd suggest to order it not spicy (ahn-mae-weo-yo).
This restaurant is in Myeong Dong. From Noon Square Mall (that has H&M, Zara & Cinus theatre), go across the way to Krispy Kreme donuts. Turn left and it is the next building next to the donut shop. It's on the left side. Price: 17,000Won for two people. (Andong is actually the area where the dish was created. Jjim=steamed & dalk=chicken.
Arrived in BKK today morning, lost Benjamin and my mom somewhere in the airport, took ages to find each other, the bloody heat during the day stole my apetite so, ate like bits of noodles for lunch and I was so exhausted because of the last weeks of the hectic but amazing trip in Vietnam that I slept off like at 6pm, missed dinner and woke up at 3 am starving and happened to read this! Can you imagine how I feel?? ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove love love love!! I had this at school a couple of times and I've been searching for it ever since. Perhaps next time we are in Seoul or you want to double fist some Chuncheon cuisine, we could sniff some out together^^
ReplyDeleteKimchiowner...get to Myeong Dong and these restaurants are EVERYWHERE! Last time I counted, I think there were 5 andong jjimdalk restaurants! Where do you live?
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